Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin

Victim of Internet Advance Deposit Scheme Charged with Bounced Check

Unfortunately, the issuance of an arrest warrant tolls the statute of limitations and will never expire. However, a good criminal lawyer might be able to negotiate terms for your voluntary surrender which may not involve your being held in jail. You seem to have been the victimized by what is known as an "advanced deposit" scam. The common thread in these crimes is convincing the victim that he must send money to the crooks so that the crooks can send money to him. Your case is slightly different in that they sent you money first (via a bad check) and then talked you into giving real money back to them before their original check bounced. This is a common variant of the scam. There is never any valid business reason for such an arrangement, even for a person who claims to be from overseas, so anyone requesting such a thing is a criminal. The safest policy is to presume that every proposal you receive online is intended to defraud you, at least until proven otherwise. If you have been so victimized, you must immediately report the offense, both for your own protection and in order to better allow authorities to protect others. If you do not report it quickly enough, you are likely to be considered an accomplice and charged with a crime yourself. Anytime that anyone negotiates a check which turns out to be bad, they are likely to be charged with a crime, although the government usually must prove that you intended to defraud someone before they can prove the charge against you (unless you plead guilty and relieve them of that duty). Waiting at least 30 days for a check from an unknown individual to clear before drawing out funds will probably protect you adequately. In your case, waiting ten days turned out to be too short of a period for the check which the scammer gave to you to bounce. Expertly forged cashier�s checks are increasingly common, and the banks� in-house experts often cannot recognize the forgery. The only safe policy is therefore to wait for a longer period before using the funds. You also need to retain an experience criminal lawyer as soon as possible. Good luck!